Editorial: Sickest patients merit better access to organs

[Clark]

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/article/Sickest-patients-merit-better-access-to-organs-2182275.php

Sickest patients merit better access to organs

The United Network for Organ Sharing, the national governing body for organ transplants, should change its policy regarding liver transplants to allow organs to go to those who most desperately need them regardless of where they live.

It's only fair.

Under current guidelines, when organs become available they are distributed to the sickest liver patients in the immediate area and then to those at the top of the list in the region, which in Texas includes Oklahoma. If there is no match, the organ is then provided to someone who is lower on the priority list.

A proposal by a committee that until recently was headed by Dr. Kenneth Washburn, professor of surgery at the University of Texas Health Science Center, would modify the rules so organs available for liver transplants would be offered to the sickest patients locally, regionally and then nationally, the Express-News reports. In some cases, regional patients would get first priority based on the severity of their illness.

There are more than 100 hospitals in the country that perform liver transplants. Three of them are in San Antonio and include, one that specializes in children. They include University Hospital, Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital and Christus Santa Rosa.

Changing the policy on how organs are made available for liver transplants could help save more lives.

The need for organs is far outweighed by supply of donors and the waiting lists for transplants are long. There are more than 96,000 people in the country in need of transplants; more than 7,000 of them are in Texas.

The statistics are grim. Every 13 minutes a new name is added to a national transplant list; every day 17 people die while waiting for a transplant, according to the Glenda Dawson Donate Life-Texas Registry website for the state's organ, tissue and eye donor registry.

Anyone interested in becoming an organ donor should sign up on the state's registry, which was created in 2005.

It will make the tough decisions easier for potential donor families when they are approached by medical staff at a hospital.

Donating an organ is a charitable act that cannot carry a price tag.